[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 1, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E604-E605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       INVESTING IN A NEW VISION FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND SURFACE 
                     TRANSPORTATION IN AMERICA ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. GRACE F. NAPOLITANO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 30, 2020

  Mrs. NAPOLITANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support for H.R. 2, 
the Moving Forward Act.
  I want to thank Chairman DeFazio, Chairwoman Norton and Chairman 
Lipinski for their tremendous work on the Surface Transportation 
portions of this bill. I would also like to thank the leadership for 
including water provisions from my Water Resources and Environment 
Subcommittee, and thank Chairman Grijalva for including my water 
recycling bill from the Natural Resources Committee in this package.
  Mr. Speaker, the surface transportation section of this bill will 
make a significant impact in improving American lives by reducing 
commute times, increasing safety on our highways, bridges, buses and 
rails, and improving our environment.
  As the senior Californian on the Committee, I am proud that this bill 
will provide $37.5 billion in transportation funding for California, 
including $26.5 billion for Highway projects and $11 billion for 
Transit.
  H.R. 2 includes important provisions I have worked on to improve 
transportation in the San Gabriel Valley, California, and our nation. 
These provisions are:
  A new Transit Worker Protection Program providing $60 million per 
year for transit agencies to work with transit unions to identify and 
implement transit worker safety measures such as bus driver barriers 
and blind spot removals. This will improve security and safety for all 
passengers, the bus drivers, and pedestrians. This program is based on 
my bill H.R. 1139, the Transit Worker Protection Act.
  The bill includes a provision to allow local transportation agencies 
and cities to give preference to our local residents when hiring 
workers for transportation projects. With Southern California raising 
incredible funds for local transportation projects, taxpayers in our 
region should be given preference to work on the local projects they 
are paying for. This will allow that.
  $2.5 billion for a new highway rail underpass construction program 
(known as a grade separation grant program). This was created after we 
had the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments testify earlier this 
year regarding the importance of highway rail safety and the very 
successful Alameda Corridor East underpass construction program in my 
region. This will create important safety and commuter benefits by 
separating the rail line from the roadway.
  $1.725 billion for electric bus purchases. This is important to 
Foothill Transit and LA METRO in my district who are rapidly purchasing 
electric buses for their fleet. It also helps these transit agencies 
with funding the electric charging infrastructure and the maintenance 
of these new-age buses. This will also support the workers in the 
electric bus industry including my constituents who work at Proterra 
bus company in Industry, CA. We must continue to improve the air 
quality of our region with clean bus implementation.
  $7 billion for bicycle, pedestrian, and safe routes to school 
projects. Many of the residents and cities in the San Gabriel Valley 
use this funding to improve bike trails and walkways that allow 
students and workers to safely get to school, work, and the Metro 
station or bus stop.
  The bill updates competitive grant funding requirements for 
transportation grants so that projects in the San Gabriel Valley have a 
better chance of being selected based on the merit of their 
applications. Southern California transportation projects such as the 
57/60 confluence project and the Alameda Corridor East Highway Rail 
grade crossing separation projects are the highest ranked projects in 
the country but consistently get overlooked because of politics. This 
bill makes the grant requirements more associated with project quality 
and less by politics.
  The bill allows states to use federal transportation funds to build 
suicide barriers on bridges. Studies show that the vast majority of 
suicides on bridges are because of a sudden impulse, and if a barrier 
were erected the person would not continue with a suicide attempt. This 
is based on my bill with Rep. Beyer of Virginia called the Barriers to 
Suicide Act (H.R. 4309).
  The bill includes a provision that would require the Department of 
Transportation when working with local agencies on transit oriented 
development projects to address homeless housing assistance. The 
expansion of the Gold Line in my district has created important housing 
opportunities for residents that could be used to also address the 
homeless crisis we are facing in the San Gabriel Valley.
  The bill creates a Truck Driver Leasing Task Force that is based on a 
bill I introduced last Congress, H.R. 4144, the Port Truck Driver Bill 
of Rights. This will focus federal regulators and policy experts on 
creating solutions to controversial leasing arrangements in the 
trucking industry that are especially found at the Ports of Los Angeles 
and Long Beach. These illegal tactics by some trucking companies 
underpay truck drivers by forcing them into leasing arrangements that 
require them to work long hours without abiding by minimum wage laws, 
let alone reasonable pay and benefits. This task force will address 
these unfair practices against workers.
  The bill allows electric vehicle charging stations at park-and-ride 
lots and rest areas located along the highway. Federal law currently 
prohibits electric vehicle charging stations at these locations and my 
provision will fix that. This is a huge problem at 20 park-and-ride 
lots in Los Angeles County including the El Monte Bus Station in my 
district, which is the largest bus transit station on the West coast. 
Electric vehicles owners should be allowed to drive to the metro 
station and charge their car while taking transit.
  The bill stops the Trump Administration from threatening to withhold 
$250 million annually

[[Page E605]]

in FAA grants to California airports and divert $70 million in CA State 
and Local general sales taxes away from their intended purpose. This 
provision was included in my amendment on the House floor that is the 
same as my bill H.R. 2939, the State and Local General Sales Tax 
Protection Act. This restores 29 years of FAA policy that the 
restriction on aviation fuel sales taxes for aviation purposes is based 
on excise taxes and not general sales taxes. This will allow the State 
of California, California Counties and California cities to continue to 
spend their general sales tax revenues on their voter approved purpose.
  An additional amendment of mine was adopted on the floor to protect 
the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) 
loan program from being raided by other programs. TIFIA is incredibly 
important to Southern California as we are able to use this low cost 
financing with our Measure R, Measure M, and SB1 money to speed up 
transportation projects so they are completed now instead of 30 years 
from now. This means Southern California residents, businesses, and 
commuters get the benefits of these highway, transit and rail 
improvements today instead of waiting for future funding cycles. This 
also saves money in the long run by shortening the time value of the 
costs of construction.
  H.R. 2 also includes important provisions from the Water Resources 
and Environment Subcommittee which I chair that would provide federal 
assistance to clean water projects, water supply projects, and 
environmental improvements and recreation. These include:
  Reauthorizes the Clean Water State Revolving Fund at $40 billion over 
five years to construct water treatment systems that address today's 
water challenges to clean up our rivers, streams, lakes and ocean for 
improved drinking water, recreation, and the environment.
  Authorizes $5.6 billion for clean water act grant programs (including 
$1 billion for treatment of PFAS chemicals and other emerging 
contaminants) that can provide direct assistance to local water 
agencies.
  Authorizes $3.4 billion to reauthorize various regional water 
programs over the next five years that the subcommittee recently 
passed, which include: the National Estuary Program, the San Francisco 
Bay Program, the Puget Sound Program, the Great Lakes Program, the 
Chesapeake Bay Program, and the Lake Pontchartrain Program.
  Appropriates $10 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers for 
construction projects for flood control, navigation, and environmental 
restoration. This funding could be used to perform the Whittier Narrows 
Dam renovation project that will protect Southern California from major 
flooding events.
  Appropriates $5 billion for operation and maintenance of Army Corps 
projects which can be used on the Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Rio 
Hondo rivers to improve the river landscape and maintain proper flood 
control.
  The Natural Resources Committee has included in H.R. 2 my bill, H.R. 
1162, the Water Recycling Investment and Improvement Act. This will 
increase the authorization for the Bureau of Reclamation's Title XVI 
program, which is the most successful and primary water recycling 
program of the federal government, from $50 million to $500 million.
  Title XVI provides cost-shared funding for water recycling projects 
that reclaim and reuse municipal, industrial, domestic or agricultural 
wastewater, and, naturally impaired ground or surface waters across the 
17 Western states. This grant program has proven to be the most cost-
effective in improving water supply by providing long-term savings, 
while boosting job growth and lowering our reliance on imported potable 
water.
  By increasing Title XVI's authorization from $50 million to $500 
million, it gives local water agencies the necessary funding to 
increase capacities for existing recycling plants or create new cost-
effective projects to boost water supplies.
  Since 1992, Congress has authorized 53 Title XVI recycling projects, 
producing more than 400,000 acre-feet of drought-resistant water 
supply. Unfortunately, due to the lack of funding, there is a backlog 
of almost $1 billion dollars for congressionally authorized Title XVI 
projects--demonstrating a clear need to continue and expand funding.
  Not only do these projects create jobs and boost our local economies, 
farms, and businesses, but Title XVI projects can be brought on-line 
with ``wet'' water, not paper water, in as little as two years. These 
projects provide long-term savings, which is why water districts and 
sanitation agencies are overwhelmingly supportive of this program.
  With almost 50 percent of the country in drought and demands for 
clean water increasing especially during this pandemic, Congress must 
look towards programs that further drought proof our drinking water, 
irrigation, and recreation water supplies. As we work to explore new 
ways to expand our water portfolio and safeguard our local communities 
from future shortages and drought, it is imperative that Congress 
adequately fund, promote and expand water recycling infrastructure 
projects.
  Mr. Speaker, before I close, I would like to thank the cities, 
transportation agencies and water agencies in my district and state 
that were integral at informing the Congress of their concerns and 
ideas for infrastructure policy.
  I would particularly like to thank Mark Christoffels for testifying 
before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee regarding 
railroad safety issues, and his colleague Paul Hubler who is also Chair 
of the Coalition for America's Gateways and Trade Corridors.
  I would like to thank my local transit leaders for giving expert 
advice on transit issues and the improvements to transit we were able 
to make in this bill. This includes Phil Washington, Raffi Hamparian 
and Michael Davies from Los Angeles Metro, and Doran Barnes and David 
Reyno from Foothill Transit.
  And I would like to thank the San Gabriel Valley Council of 
Governments and our local city leaders who advocated for increased 
urban mobility with first and last mile solutions such as pedestrian 
walkways, bike paths, and improved bus and rail service. They also 
encouraged us to do more on transit-oriented development and address 
homelessness which we were able to accomplish in this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope members appreciate the amazing work done by our 
Committee Chairs and Committee staff on this important infrastructure 
bill. They have spent countless hours, long weekends and many late 
nights putting this bill together through the odd working conditions of 
a pandemic. I would particularly like to thank my incredible water 
subcommittee staff Alexa Williams, Camille Touton, Navis Bermudez, and 
Ryan Seiger. I would also like to thank the staff who worked with me on 
provisions important to California including Helena Zyblikewycz, 
Garrett Gee, Jackie Schmitz, Auke Mahar-Piersma, Andrea Wohleber, and 
Matthew Muirragui.

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